THE OPERA'S SUSTAINABILITY POLICY

Sustainability is an important part of the Opera’s strategy. Sustainability efforts reinforce both our vision and our brand.

The Opera’s values are to uphold artistic quality, and to be fearless, welcoming and timeless.

Translated into sustainability terms, this means:

The Opera cares about human needs like creativity, identity and artistic expression. The Opera works to safeguard sound working conditions and working methods that give our employees the ability to develop professionally and make a contribution to our operations.

The Opera strives to be a responsible steward of natural resources and to take ethical responsibility for people and the environment in its operations. The Opera is transparent and takes responsibility for its decisions.

The Opera is open to the whole of society and to all ages. The Opera strives to uphold the values of diversity and gender equality in an engaging and inclusive manner.

The Opera is keen to preserve Swedish cultural heritage in accordance with its mandate. The Opera engages with its surroundings and draws attention to pressing societal challenges.

EMPLOYEES

The Opera’s employees comprise its artistic, technical and administrative staff. All employees undergo annual performance reviews and employee satisfaction surveys with a focus on the psychosocial work environment are conducted every two years. Since 2015, we have also been conducting health profiles to learn more about how employees view their health. Safety inspections are performed annually to investigate the physical work environment.

AUDIENCE

While the Opera has a strong and loyal audience, we also works actively to attract new visitors. The challenge faced by the Opera is to retain its loyal audience while simultaneously reaching out to new audiences and attracting new visitors and a wider audience base to the Opera House.

In its work, the Opera strives to reach out to and be accessible to everyone in Sweden. The Opera embraces diversity in its audience, and makes special efforts to improve accessibility for underrepresented groups. Examples of underrepresented groups include visitors requiring hearing assistance, those under 26, students, children, disabled visitors and first-time visitors.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

An overarching objective for the Opera is to be committed to and inclusive of many and accessible for everyone.

By organising activities linked to the Opera’s productions, such as holding talks, publishing opinion articles, engaging in collaborations and giving introductions to performances, the Opera addresses topical societal issues that touch on the Opera’s repertoire. The Opera’s aim in these efforts is to spread knowledge and to spark discussions, thereby contributing to sustainable societal development.

Through its programme aimed at children and young people – Young at the Opera – the Opera aims to increase the ability of children and young people, as well as their family members and schools, to partake in professional, top-quality, high culture, at an elite level but with broad appeal.

For instance, Young People at the Opera carries out projects funded both by donations and sponsorships. One such project was carried out in 2015 in partnership with Smedshagsskolan in Hässelby, a school of about 320 students, some 87% of whom have a native language other than Swedish. The Opera’s ambition is for the project model used in that project to be reused for projects at other schools.

Since autumn 2015, the Opera has been a partner of El Sistema Stockholm, with a focus on the Stockholm suburb of Tensta. El Sistema uses music as a tool for childhood development and to help at-risk children make good life choices.

MODERN RESOURCE STEWARDSHIP AND TRANSPARENCY

The Opera encourages its suppliers to contribute to sustainable societal development by imposing both social and environmental standards in its procurements.

Each time it carries out a procurement, the Opera attempts to understand the supply chain and the conditions under which the goods are produced, as well as what risks there may be, on the basis of which it formulates specifications that are as relevant as possible.

All electricity consumed by the Opera is produced exclusively using sustainable energy sources approved by the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation.

In its 2015 procurement of biodiesel for use in the Opera’s workshops at Gäddviken, preference was given to suppliers which, beyond meeting the mandatory environmental requirements for the product itself (the biodiesel) and traceability requirements, used renewable fuel to power their vehicle fleets.

2015 also market the start of a survey of the Opera’s textile suppliers with regard to their sustainability performance, along with a verification of supply chain impacts.

PRESERVING ONE CULTURAL HERITAGE – WHILE CREATING A NEW ONE

The Opera preserves and promotes Sweden’s national cultural heritage in the field of opera and ballet, while also supporting innovative work in these disciplines by commissioning and presenting new works by Swedish composers, librettists and choreographers. By putting on both classics and modern, innovative works, the Opera strives to preserve our existing cultural heritage while also creating a new legacy worth preserving. Awareness of our cultural heritage is a prerequisite if we wish to be able to evolve and move forward.